Royal Hotel, Norwich
The Royal Hotel is a Grade II listed building and was a former hotel located in the English city of Norwich in the county of Norfolk. The hotel closed its doors in 1977 and is now used as a business centre.
History
Origins
The building is located at the western end of Prince of Wales Road, at its junction with Agricultural Hall Plain. The building you see today was built to replace an old coaching inn of the same name which stood on Gentleman's Walk overlooking Norwich marketplace and was approximately from the present building. The previous inn was one of a number of old inns in that area which had originally been built to providing lodgings for travellers on the stagecoaches to the city up until the mid-19th century, when the stagecoach gave way to rail travel, the old Royal coaching inn was demolished and, in its place, the Royal Arcade was constructed. The new shopping arcade was designed in the Art Nouveau style by Norwich architect, George Skipper in 1899.New site
The new site in the area now called Agricultural Hall Plain was at the heart of Norwich's commercial district. The site of the new hotel had to be cleared of buildings previously occupied by a firm of solicitors, Fosters, Burroughs and Robberds and the yard of the stonemason company of Barnabas Barrett. During the site clearance in 1896 discoveries were made of sections of Norwich Castle outer precincts. The new hotel was designed by the Norwich architect Edward Boardman, who was one of the most successful Norwich architects in the second half of the 19th century.Builder
A local building company called John Youngs and Son was used for the construction and the building was completed, along with the demolishing and clearance of the old Hotel in Gentlemen's Walk, for the sum of £23,905.Design and construction
The new hotel was designed by Boardman to be spacious, luxurious and to have installed the latest modern fixtures and fittings of the time. Boardman also incorporated into the design of the new hotel part of the interior decoration of the former solicitor's offices which had stood on the site. The offices had contained a particularly fine example of a plasterwork ceiling laid on oak lath measuring by. This section of ceiling had been very carefully removed and was installed in the new first floor drawing room in the hotel, along with French casements to the balcony. The hotel was six storeys high which included a basement. Many of the front elevation windows were mullioned. Over the front entrance to the Hotel there is a balcony with intricately sculpted brick latticework. This exterior decorative brickwork is known as Costesseyware, with the materials for this work being supplied from the brick works of George Gunton in Costessey. These bricks are to be found on many building in and around Norwich and were used and promoted by local architects such as Boardman and George Skipper. This method of brickwork was easily rubbed and shaped to form intricate patterns and sculptures. The front elevation of the building is a built in a semicircular curve running from the top of Prince of Wales Road into Bank Plain and has three gable ends incorporated into the curve all of which have further alternating brickwork decorative detailing. The front elevation at street level was constructed from stone masonry of a colour to match the brickwork, which begins at the first lift at ground floor level. The roof of the hotel was originally tiled with green slate.Interior
The interior fixtures and fitting of the hotel were of the most modern and up to date of the era and providing the very latest in technology and building standards, whilst the design intent was to create the feel of a comfortable country mansion. The hotel was fully electrified, and the staircases were fully fireproofed. The hotel also had a large ventilation shaft included in the design. The storeys were also connected by lifts which were installed by Laurence Scott & Co, who also installed the lighting and bells. Some of the hotel windows were illuminated with stained glass, fabricated by the Norwich firm of J & J King. The heating system and the Kitchen cookers and equipment were supplied by R. and A. Mainof Edmonton, London. Boardman's design gave the hotel a total of 65 guest rooms over four of the storeys with the semi-circular shape of the frontage creating the attic bedrooms to have angular corners and sloping ceilings. The hotel's first floor dining room was to facilitate private dinners and wedding receptions and consisted of a suite which could accommodate twenty people. The basement floor contained the servants' hall, and included a pantry, pastry room and several kitchens along with a suite of rooms allocated to the plate man. There were also a plate room and office rooms, including a further bedroom.